La Peregrina pearl to be sold
September 8 2011
The famous pearl given to Mary I by Philip II, and worn by her in her portraits, will be sold in December at Christie's. Valued at $2-3m, it was until recently owned by Elizabeth Taylor. Interestingly, a portrait such as the above by Hans Eworth is worth at least twice that.
More on the history of pearl, and Taylor's ownership of it, here.
Art market futures
September 7 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Here's a first - and a sign of things to come. Next week, Sotheby's in New York will host their first ever Fine Classical Chinese Paintings sale. Above is an anonymous 17th/18th Century Seated Portrait of a Prince (detail), ink and colour on silk, estimated at $90-120,000.
Probably, it won't be long until Chinese Paintings sales are as important as the bi-annual Old Master sales. The only question is, will such sales take place in the West, in Europe and America - or will the world's art market gravitate permanently to Asia?
New work by Jean–Léon Gérôme discovered
September 6 2011
Picture: The Staedel Museum, Frankfurt. 'St Jerome and the Holy Aerobie' 1874 (detail).
The Staedel Museum in Frankfurt has found a lost work by Jean–Léon Gérôme, the French 19th Century artist. It was given to the museum in 1935, but was lost until rediscovered during renovation works. More details here.
Ford Madox Brown puzzle
September 6 2011
Picture: Manchester Art Gallery
I recently mentioned the new Ford Madox Brown exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery and the inclusion of the newly discovered Seraph's Watch. Julian Treuherz, who is curating the exhibition, has been in touch to see if anyone can help solve the apparent puzzle on the figure's shirt. He writes:
There is a puzzle in the painting, maybe some of your readers may be able to help. I cannot find out why Brown used the strange quincunx design on the seraph's tunic; he must have put it there for a reason, also the overlapping circles of the haloes and the little ones at the intersections of the haloes. Someone suggested Swedenborgian associations, but the Swedenborg Society looked into it for me but found nothing to confirm this.
Well, I'm stumped. But if anybody has any bright ideas, pray, let us know...
Sotheby's Institute conference
September 6 2011
Ping into my inbox comes an email flyer from Sotheby's Institute:
Sotheby's Institute of Art is pleased to invite you to a one-day conference entitled Exploring Risk and Uncertainty: Metaphors from the Art World, taking place on Friday 23 September 2011: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm followed by a drinks reception.
In association with Cambridge University’s Centre for Risk Studies at the Judge Business School, this research-based conference will investigate the nature of risk and uncertainty using metaphors from the art market with an aim to draw novel inferences and develop insights relevant to both the art world and other fields.
I've no idea what any of this actually means, but if you want to go, details here.
Fine Zoffany pair to be auctioned
September 6 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Sotheby's are first out of the blocks with their December Old Master sale highlights. They have secured an impressive pair of paintings by Johann Zoffany, both showing David Garrick, the celebrated actor. Above is The Garden at Hampton House, with Mr & Mrs Garrick taking tea (1762). The other is Mr & Mrs by the Shakespeare Temple at Hampton (also 1762).
The pictures will be sold together with an estimate of £6-8m at Sotheby's December sales. The full Sotheby's press release is here.
The pictures were both part of the important Zoffany exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 1976. Then they were listed as being part of the collection of the Earls of Durham, and as far as I know they still are. The late Earl of Durham was the infamous government minister, Lord Lambton, who scandalised society in the '60s by frequenting prostitutes. He was caught because he insisted on paying by cheque. The current Earl, the 7th, lives at Lambton Castle and Biddick Hall. He used to be play in a band called 'The Frozen Turkeys'.
A dastardly deaccession?
September 5 2011
Picture: Bristol 24/7
These deaccessioning stories seem to be coming thick and fast... Here's a novel one though: a whole load of museum exhibits are sold privately to a dealer by the museum's director - who is then sacked by the trustees, and the police called in.
The items were sold from the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. The Museum opened in 2002 in Bristol, but had to close in 2008 due to financial difficulties. The museum is now looking to relocate to London (Bristol was always a loony idea). Tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods were seemingly sold without proper approval. Some of the items didn't even belong to the museum.
The Art Newspaper has the full intriguing story here, and it's worth a read. It seems rather disturbing...
'View from' No.3 - answer
September 5 2011
Picture: Musee du Chateau, Versailles
Well done to the many of you who correctly guessed Versailles - and to the four of you who very quickly honed it down to Pierre-Denis Martin's 1722 View of Versailles (Oil on Canvas 115 x 161 cm.)
I note enviously the lovely lack of queues in those days - when we went, there was about an hour long queue (at least) to buy a ticket, and then the same again to get in, so that the entire courtyard was one long snake of hot and disgruntled tourists. We went to Fontainebleau instead, which, if you're ever faced with the same dilemma, is much more interesting...
Old Agnews gallery reopens
September 5 2011
Picture: BG
Agnews sold their old Bond Street gallery some time ago, at the height of the London property boom. It was empty for a while, but is now re-opened as the fashion label Etro's flagship London shop. I had a nose around today during lunch.
If there was an AHN prize for Commendable Good Taste, Mr Etro would get it. The rooms and galleries have been sympathetically restored, right down to the velvet wall coverings in the old green and purple colours. There's even a choice smattering of pictures, which I'm told come from Mr Etro's private collection. You wouldn't get that in Burberry. The main upstairs gallery is not yet open, but they say it will be soon.
Etro's takeover of Agnews is symptomatic of a trend - fashion is slowly pushing out London's art and antiques dealers. Leading brands and trendy new labels are prepared to have loss-leading shops in London for the prestigious addresses. So they propel rents ever higher. Landlords love it - until the trendy new labels go bust and the shops have to be re-let. Mount Street in London's Mayfair used to be well known for its galleries and antiques shops - but is almost now exclusively fashion.
Museums Association conference
September 5 2011
Picture: Museums Association
Here's something I didn't know existed - a two day museum conference in Brighton, run by the Museum's Association. This year it's on 3-4 October. The MA says the theme of the conference is:
The fightback starts here:
For the past two years museums and galleries have battened down the hatches and tried to weather the storm of cuts. Redundancies have all had an impact on what museums can provide for the public they serve.
Tickets to the conference are £450 for full members, or £600 for non members. Ouch!
New acquisition in Scotland
September 5 2011
Picture: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
Here's a notable acquisition I missed while I was away. The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art has bought the above watercolour, The Mysterious Garden, 1911, by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh. It cost £230,000.
Deaccession foiled in Scotland
September 5 2011
Picture: Lochaber News
Here's a rarity - a museum in Scotland has been forced to shelve plans for a deaccession after a public outcry. The West Highland Museum wanted to sell Letters and News at the Lochside, 1868, by Henry Tamworth Wells to fund a new extension. It was valued at up to £60,000. But local residents objected, and for now seem to have won. More details here.
View from the Artist no.3
September 2 2011
Time for another go I think. This one's a bit easier...
It's just for fun, but laudatory congratulations to the first correct answer.
That stolen 'Rubens' in Greece?
September 2 2011
Further to the story below, a reader has sent me an image of what he says is the painting recovered in Greece. He says it is a copy. If true, it means the villains were a bit dense...
Update: The villains were in fact spectacularly dense - for they originally stole two paintings - one of which was an undoubted Rubens. But they dropped it on the way out.
Rant: Paris v London
September 2 2011
Picture: BG
Above is a photo taken outside the National Gallery, London, yesterday. To the right, a not very talented busker is singing the same Cat Stevens song repeatedly, with an amplifier. In front of him a couple of drunks are leering at passersby. Behind, a variety of 'acts' try to entertain the tourists (one is a man dressed as Sherlock Holmes on stilts). To the left a police van patrols slowly up and down. Out of shot are the litter-strewn grass banks in front of the gallery (which at night become home to more drunks).
It seems to me that the chaos in front of the Gallery diminishes its calming presence in London. The building and its contents often feel cowed by the loud 'events' and concerts which take place in Trafalgar Square almost every other day.
Or am I being a killjoy? Having just returned from Paris, I'm struck by how well its museums and cultural attractions are presented. You'd never see the above in front of the Louvre. When Boris Johnson first ran to be Mayor of London, I was asked to advise him on cultural policy. My one suggestion was that he should make London's cultural areas nicer places to be. London's theatreland, for example, is not a pleasant place to go in the evening. I know the National Gallery have also tried to do something about the noise in Trafalgar Squre. But it seems Boris isn't interested.
LA Police stumped by stolen 'Rembrandt'
September 2 2011
Police in Los Angeles are refusing to hand back a stolen 'Rembrandt' drawing - because they cannot determine whether it is by Rembrandt or not. 'The Judgment' was stolen from the Ritz-Carlton, but then found in a church two days later. More details here.
Stolen Rubens recovered in Athens sting
September 2 2011
Picture: RKD
Police in Athens say they have recovered a lost Rubens. The picture was seized as villains tried to sell it to undercover police for EUR1m.
The police aren't saying what the picture is, officially. But press reports have linked it to a sketch of a Boar Hunt stolen from the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts in 2001. The museum has refused to comment.
The only relevant image I can find is the above sketch, of a boar hunt, listed in the RKD as being at Ghent. But in the RKD database it is catalogued as 'After Rubens' - so it may not be that picture.
If the villains had been a little sharper, they could have 'stolen' a Rubens Boar Hunt scene quite legitimately, just a few years ago. In 2005, The Calydonian Boar Hunt (1611/12) by Rubens was sold at auction in Paris as 'Follower of Rubens', with an estimate of just EUR10,000. It now belongs to the Getty Museum.
More details when I get them...
History of Art books out this week
September 1 2011
I hope to make this a regular feature. Out this week are:
- The Louvre: All the Paintings, by Vincent Pomarede
- Bernini: His life and his Rome, by Franco Mormando
- Miraculous Bouquets: Flower and Fruit Paintings by Jan Van Huysum, by Anne T. Woollett
- Pieter Bruegel, by Larry Silver
- The Spanish Manner: Drawings from Ribera to Goya, by Jonathan Brown
- Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed, by Martin Postle
- Artemisia Gentileschi: A Woman's History, Passion of an Artist, by Roberto Contini
- Gauguin and Polynesia, by Suzanne Greub
- Michelangelo: The Achievement of Fame, 1474-1534, by Michael Hirst
- Gabriel Metsi: Life and Work, Catalogue Raisonne, by Adriaan Waiboer
- Richard Parkes Bonnington: The Complete Drawings, by Patrick Noon
- Facing Beauty: Painted Women and Cosmetic Art, by Aileen Ribeiro
- Fragonard's Prgress of Love at the Frick Collection, by Colin Bailey
Apologies for the lack of links; if you want to buy, just cut & paste to Google the titles. If I've missed out yours, let me know!
German fake trial begins
September 1 2011
Picture: morgenweb.de
The trial of a forgery gang whose works fooled major dealers and auction houses such as Lempertz and Christie's has begun in Germany. You can see some of their fakes here, including the truly awful 'Van Dongen', above. How did they ever succeed?
Update: A brief video report here.
